Wilhelm Furtwaengler: The Early Recordings, Vol. 3 = Works of WEBER, MENDELSSOHN, BERLIOZ

by | May 29, 2009 | Classical Reissue Reviews | 0 comments

Wilhelm Furtwaengler: The Early Recordings, Vol. 3 = WEBER: Der Freischuetz Overture and Entr’acte; Invitation to the Dance (orch. Berlioz); MENDELSSOHN: Overture in E to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21; Scherzo, Nocturne, and Wedding March, Op. 61; The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26; BERLIOZ: Hungarian March from The Damnation of Faust, Op. 24 – Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Wilhelm Furtwaengler/Erich Kleiber (Mendelssohn Op. 61)

Naxos Historical 8.111004, 65:26 [Not distrib. in the U.S.] ****:


Producer Mark Obert-Thorn resuscitates the inscriptions Wilhelm Furtwangler (1886-1954) made for the Brunswick (Grammophone) Company 1929-1935,  along with examples of Mendelssohn from Erich Kleiber (1890-1956) recorded in 1929. The relative brevity of the Furtwaengler program does not belie the extraordinary homogeneity of sound Furtwaengler commanded in his chosen, Romantic repertory. The quartet of French horns in the slow introduction to the 1935 Der Freischuetz Overture indicates the degree of almost Gothic drama the conductor could project into the score’s Druidical setting. The interlude captures the hunting motif that pervades the opera, whether of fauna or of human souls. The full complement of cellos opens The Invitation to the Dance (rec. 1932), spectacularly light and aerial for a Furtwaengler performance, even if a bit stiff in the joints. The measured tread of the middle section finally yields to the intensity of the moment, quite expressive and proud of the string and horn ensemble the Berlin Philharmonic could project in its honed manner.

Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (13 June 1929) proceeds with ethereal grace, sporting out its cast of characters from Shakespeare’s storehouse of fairy energies. Diaphanous strings, bleating horns, flutes, and finally a superlative braying from Botttom, combine to realize a nobly translucent performance, albeit prone to old-school procedures like rich slides in the strings. The slower sections achieve a transcendent, pantheistic grace, the world dissipating into some rarified substance that Puck alone could explain. The latter pages blaze with grandiose jubilation, an enlivened gravitas, only to recede into stellar space on those final, four chords mystical and eternally nostalgic. The Fingal’s Cave (rec. 1930) suffers some surface scratchiness, but the tempestuous unrest of the Scottish coastline boils in every phrase, wind and sea in fearful tension. The cello melody rolls out like great wave itself, buoyed by an ardent violin, string line.   The pantheistic romance burgeons into a polyphonic hymn of severe, grand power, with Furtwaengler’s raising of the titanic forces to something akin to Beethoven.

The Rakoczy March (rec. 1930) under Furtwaengler proves rather peppery, agile, and even thrilling, with trombones, cymbals, and tympani well into the mix, a particularly quiet transfer from the period.  Erich Kleiber’s precise work before an orchestra hardly requires introduction, especially as Preiser has been active in restoring his 78 rpm work. The excerpts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream open with a nimble Scherzo, buzzing and light, lovingly articulate. The flute work makes us want to hear Kleiber in the second of the Bach Suites. The Nocturne instantiates the soul of serenity, the French horns basking in the melos with a “Wagnerian” sense of measure and space. Finally, the eternal Wedding March, pompous, imperial, rather brilliant in the horn and cymbal parts. Performances of mettle and verve, meticulously restored.

–Gary Lemco

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